Saturday, February 25, 2012

Green Gathering: Malaysians take Lynas to court

Malaysia is littered with ventures
where profits are privatized and losses are socialized. If the people of
Malaysia are not vigilant, the Lynas plant may very well turn out to be the
next radiation disaster.

Reported in Malaysia Today, the state of Kuantan - Environmental
Watch Group, Soon Jin Hou said if the scam goes as planned, the
largest rare earth refinery in the world will start operating in Gebeng
Industrial Zone, some 25 km away from Kuantan town, home to almost half a
million people. This plant will cast a shadow over Kuantan town. Real estate
price will plunge, residents who are able to relocate will flee and those who
are not will be in constant fear of radiation exposure.

Lynas Corporation Ltd is an ASX 100 listed company, claims
to have its strategy to create a reliable, fully integrated source of Rare
Earths from mine through to market, and to become the benchmark for the security
of supply and environmental standards in the global Rare Earths industry.

The foundation of this strategy is Mount Weld in Western
Australia, the richest known deposit of Rare Earths in the world, and a
state-of-the-art Rare Earths processing plant.

Despite the Government’s announcement to shelve the project
due to public uproar last year, Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) is pushing ahead with the construction near Kuantan in Pahang, Malaysia. This fuels the
speculations of a hand in high ranking official’s involvement and corruption cannot
be disqualified.

If not, the authorities certainly have learnt nothing at all
from the Asian Rare Earth (ARE) debacle in Bukit Merah, Perak. The ARE plant
was operated by Mitsubishi Chemical and it extracted rare earth from old tin
mine slag.Unfortunately the waste
contains high level of thorium, which is a perpetually radioactive substance
because its half-life is 14.05 billion years! The residents there blamed the
plant for birth defects and eight leukemia cases, 7 of whom have since died. As
a result of strong public opposition, the ARE was finally closed in 1992 and is
currently undergoing a massive RM303 million cleanup.

It is not difficult to see why the authorities have not
learnt their lesson from the ARE disaster. Until this very day, the authorities
refused to acknowledge that the radioactive waste was responsible for sudden
escalation of health problems among the residents. On 26 April 2011, Deputy
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof claimed that the
waste in Bukit Merah poses no threat to the public or the environment. This is
in stark contrast with the evidence, whereby the 8 leukemia cases occurred
within 5 years in a community of 11,000.

However, the massive cleanup effort belies the government’s
assertion. If the waste is safe, why would such an extensive cleanup be
necessary? When the cleanup is completed, the waste will finally be buried deep
inside a nearby hill under 20 feet of clay and granite. If the waste poses no
threat, why the need to bury it?

Similarly, for the new rare earth refinery, the point of
contention is the waste management. Since the beginning, public disclosures
from the authorities and Lynas Corporation from Australia, the owner of the
plant have been sparse and contradictory. Despite the huge stake Kuantan
residents have, no public consultation was held prior to approval of the
project. In fact, if not for a report in the New York Times on 8 March 2011,
many residents would still be oblivious to the existence of this plant.

Lynas will import rare earth ores from Mount Weld in
Australia to be processed in Gebeng. The finished products will be exported
overseas while the radioactive waste dumped in Gebeng. From the press
statements, one can surmise that the waste management is not even finalized
yet.

On one hand, Lynas’ executive chairman Nicholas Curtis
claims that they have permission from the government to store the waste onsite
forever. On the other, AELB’s (Atomic Energy Licensing Board) director general
Raja Datuk Abdul Aziz Raja refutes that claim in saying that the plant can only
store waste temporarily. If the onsite storage is temporary, where will the
waste be shipped to next? It will definitely not be bound for its place of
origin Australia, after Western Australian minister for mines and petroleum,
fisheries and electoral affairs Norman Moore flatly rejected calls to take back
Lynas’ radioactive waste.

The lies, deceit and deception by the elite & corporate giants are causing
an outrage to the learned Malaysians. A sign of nothing more than potential
wealth looting at the expense of the people’s health.

Raja Aziz claims that Lynas’ waste is safe
enough to be scattered everywhere if Lynas can keep the thorium level in its
waste to 1,600 parts per million. Then again, if the waste is safe, why is it
necessary for Lynas to build storage pools for it, and why does Raja Aziz
refuse permission for Lynas to store the waste permanently? The most plausible
explanation is that neither Lynas nor AELB are confident that the ‘safe’
thorium level can be met. If that is the case, the authorities have betrayed
the people of Kuantan by exposing them to unknown and unnecessary health risks.

The flippant attitude of the authorities is on full display
in a town hall style meeting with Kuantan residents, where Raja Aziz said that
Lynas will only be told to cease operation if they breach the threshold thorium
concentration limit. Yet, he admitted that there were no fixed safety
requirements for radiation, and that the concentration is just an indicator.
How can such a project be approved without due consideration to the health and
safety of the residents? To allay fears of radiation exposure, Lynas harp on a
Radiological Impact Assessment report that claims that the waste is safe.
However, until this day, this report has not been disclosed to the public for
scrutiny. It would not be difficult to imagine that if Lynas is
willing to incur substantial transportation cost to ship the ores all the way
from Australia to be processed in Gebeng, the waste is probably something
nobody wants in their backyard. This explains Lynas’ rather secretive modus
operandi. Despite the claim of low thorium levels, Lynas will be processing 10
times the amount of ores compared to the ARE.

Environmentalists contends that the much larger volume
causes thorium levels to build up over time, to which Lynas has yet to provide
any reply. Lynas also conveniently skipped the issue of radon gas, another
potent carcinogen, which is discharged when the ores are cracked. Finally,
Lynas refuses to disclose whether they will process uranium bearing ores in
Gebeng from their newly acquired Malawian mine in Gebeng.

An East Malaysia political party PKR is joining force with
resident and NGO's on a nationwide campaign to stop the greedy political imbeciles in
their suicide mission for wealth.

Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) group urges the authorities
to exercise restraint to allow citizens their democratic rights and to give
them the space to peacefully express themselves in the forthcoming Sunday’s
Himpunan Hijau 2.0 rally in Kuantan.

Chairperson of SMSL, Mr Tan Bun Teet explained, “The people
have fought hard to stop Lynas and a number of other environmental problems. It
is our duty as responsible and caring citizens to keep our country and our
family safe.”

Earlier this month, a temporary operating license was issued
to Lynas Malaysia, a wholly owned operation of Australia’s Lynas Corporation,
for its controversial rare earth refinery plant in Gebeng, an industrial estate
about 20 km from Kuantan.

“We have tried every possible avenue and yet the Government
has gone ahead with its bad decision which threatens our future. It is
understandable that this will spark outrage and anger amongst people.” Said
Haji Ismail Abu Bakar, Vice-Chairperson of SMSL.

He added, “Many families living in kampongs along the coast
in Pahang will be directly affected once Lynas starts to dump its waste water
into the South China Sea. These families depend on the seafood and tourism
industry. They run small businesses to sustain their livelihoods. Who will want
to buy contaminated seafood? Who will want to holiday next to a toxic plant?” SMSL is disappointed that the Government has not taken on
board grave concerns of the public which leave the people no choice but to take
to the street to protest. The injustice is felt everywhere, not just in Kuantan
but the whole of Malaysia. The good reputation of Malaysia is at stake over the
handling of this issue.

The Lynas issue is a problem for ALL Malaysians. The
pollution will spread over a wide area, even into our ASEAN neighbors through
the South China Sea. Contaminated seafood and agricultural produce can create
serious food safety issue not just for the people of Kuantan but to all the
consumers of agriculture and seafood and seafood products. Air pollution from the
Lynas plant can be carried far and wide by the north eastern monsoon wind. Where will Lynas find a permanent location for its waste?
Which state in Malaysia or which town in Pahang will be the next target?

Having a polluting industry will deter investment from clean
technology and ethical companies which is the way of the future. Rare earth
oxides are crucial raw materials but locating it in an ecologically sensitive
area so close to so many families is a bad and regressive move.

“SMSL has engaged a strong team of experts to prepare for
our legal action with the help of the Pahang Bar. We have strong grounds and we
want to leave no stone unturned to present the strongest possible case. Letting
Lynas operate is NOT an option.”

Malaysia is littered
with ventures where profits are privatized and losses are socialized. If the
people of Malaysia are not vigilant, the Lynas plant may very well turn out to
be the next radiation disaster.